Health and Social Care Managers Across England Face Up To Major New Responsibilities

Online, June 13, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Under rules first introduced in 2009, organisations involved in providing health of social care are now regulated businesses and must register their compliance with a new set of essential standards of quality and safety. As part of the changes, the Care Quality Commission, the health and social care regulator for England, is moving from periodic assessments and quality ratings to a system of continuous monitoring of compliance with the essential standards.

The shake-up puts major new responsibilities on to the shoulders of those managing some 40,000 organisations and companies across England. They include GP and dental practices, hospitals including community hospitals, nursing homes and providers of social care.

The regime is aimed at transforming the way health and social care is managed across the board in order to ensure the highest possible standards. Users will need to be especially careful about the issue of regulatory compliance - for the CQC guidelines do not claim to be the definitive reference. In other words, they don't cover everything, so managers and owners still have a duty to ensure that the organisations for which they are responsible comply fully with all their statutory and legal obligations.

X-Genics, the supplier of expert systems for health and social care professionals, has been working for several months on how best to address this problem. Its aim has been to ensure the new standards are met fully - so that efficiencies flow through organisations, large and small, to the benefit of end users, and workplace disruption is minimised.

Now, X-Genics can announce the release of a unique, comprehensive tool kit to help everyone involved in health and social care to ensure compliance with the new regime.

A crucial change is that the CQC will undertake spot checks, and anyone found to be non-compliant risks disciplinary action ranging from minor fines to closure. The eManager package from X-Genics is easy for managers to use and understand, at any level of seniority. A key advantage is that users will be able to provide evidence of their compliance. This is a vital benefit as it allows users to master their additional responsibilities while enabling them to get on with the jobs that they do best.

The CQC has made clear that care providers are responsible for knowing what legislation is relevant to their service. Compliance with legislation may be used by regulators in the monitoring and checking of services. As an example, the 2009 NHS Complaints regulations are not mentioned in the CQC guidelines, yet providers must comply with them.

Merely following a list of regulatory items - there are 28 outcomes to follow in the new regulations - is not necessarily the best way to proceed. Providers and their managers should work out which ones present the highest risk to their business and tackle these first. Organisations may well be "excused" for failures on low-risk provisions, but they could be closed down for those lapses considered high-risk, such as those posing a danger to the public.

"Our compliance tool therefore tackles the issue from a completely different point of view in that it looks at all the legislation you should comply with, including CQC and other regulations, and by using this tool, you will be able to identify the gaps in your compliance and hopefully put these right," said Bharat Patel, CEO of X-Genics.

"Our tool breaks this down into high-risk and low-risk items so that you can differentiate and tackle the most important things first and if you are not fully compliant, at least you will only be exposed to low risk items," said Bharat Patel.

"eManager is the only provider in the healthcare market that provides a totally integrated electronic solution which allows you to measure and identify your strengths and weaknesses and then delivers a complete library of procedures that allow you to comply with each of the major regulations."

Further information:
X-Genics
Bharat Patel
healthcare@xgenics.com
+44 (0) 0845 680 9204

Media enquiries:
Allerton Communications
Peter Curtain
peter.curtain@allertoncomms.co.uk
+44 (0)20 3137 2500

About X-Genics Limited

X-Genics is a provider of compliance software to businesses, professional groups and public-sector organisations. Its first product, eManager, is an effective, simple, easy to use software system designed to ensure regulatory and corporate governance compliance. The software supports internal policies and procedures concerning Human Resources, Health & Safety, Corporate Governance and Administration.

eManager requires minimum training to use and staff require no prior knowledge of the underlying legislation that governs these processes. It updates automatically with any incoming regulation, ensuring the highest levels of compliance across all sites.

X-Genics publishing partners include Government organisations, academic bodies, and other publishers in the regulatory field. The Company also provides bespoke products and training modules tailored to specific client and industry requirements, providing rapid implementation of compliance processes without the significant outlay or in-house infrastructure often required.